Sex Addiction: Separating Fact from Fiction

As a playwright, my work has touched on addiction in a variety of ways. Recently in my play #Love95times, which is about a sexual assault on a college campus, the protagonist is a sober alcoholic who is a witness to the assault and goes to his sponsor about it. In one of the drafts of the play, the conversation around sex addiction comes up, and in my research and conversations, I heard a lot of misconceptions and confusion about sex addiction. “Is it even a real thing?” was a common question.

Kelly Moylan, LCSW is a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of codependency and she consults with the Sexuality, Attachment and Trauma Project. Ms. Moylan has been a practicing clinician for 19 years in a number